Ontario – Walleye Report

70 or more walleyes 20” or better, average 24”

The above is not a typo. On June 1st, Onaman Lake opened its angling season. The lake was deemed a fish sanctuary several years ago and thus fell under Ontario’s unique angling regulations. In fact, the lake is such a prolific walleye lake, it was used many years ago as the primary supplier for stocking many of the area lakes. Those lakes today are still thriving with impressive stocks of walleye. With an early close and late opening, Onaman lake is the apple in everyone’s eye and it’s June 1st opening is highly anticipated by many of the regulars to the Pasha Lake Region of Ontario.

Now, if you are a fisherman, by our very nature we are known to stretch the truth. Therefore I am very guarded with the details I am able to submit in my report.

Here is what I can tell you with 100% certainty. Since it’s June 1st opening, we have had several groups fish Onaman Lake. There has been a minimum of two walleyes 30” or better landed and released. The Joe H. group from Toronto, that group alone, landed over 70 walleye on June 2nd and they estimated their average fish to be 24”. There are several occasions where they reported having triples even quadruples while jig fishing certain points. A member or Joe’s group, Muhammad C. is an avid, I mean AVID walleye angler, not to mention he has fished all over the world. His tackle box makes the Cabela’s tackle shop look like amateur hour. Yesterday, his exact words to me were “This is the most amazing and abundant walleye fishery in the world”.

So let’s put that into prospect for second. Say Joe’s group was a little liberal in their estimates and the landed only 50 fish. And maybe, because they were catching so many, they couldn’t measure every fish and a more accurate average is 22”. Does it really matter? My guess is, probably not. And, if it were just Joe’s group, I might be skeptical. However my personal experiences augmented by other groups reporting similar findings, tell me that Joe’s account of his experiences, backed up by his pictures, are right on the mark!

Until next time…